The Irish taking their national football brand to the ACC, or any conference, has long seemed implausible. Not now.

Sources affiliated with the ACC and Notre Dame believe this can happen, want it to happen.

"I love the ACC, and I love Notre Dame," Gene Corrigan said. "I think it would be wonderful."

Corrigan understands the principals like no other.

He served as Notre Dame's athletic director from 1981-87, hiring the last football coach to bring a national championship to the Golden Dome, Lou Holtz. Corrigan left Notre Dame to become commissioner of the ACC, orchestrating Florida State's addition to the conference in 1991.

Corrigan and others outlined how the ACC and Notre Dame fit, and, most important, why the timing may be right.

For sports other than football, the Irish compete in the Big East, and the affiliation has helped forge significant upgrades in Notre Dame's overall program. Alas, the Big East is unraveling.

So while valuing its storied football, Notre Dame worries about its basketball programs and Olympic sports. The Irish also wonder what form football postseason will take when the current Bowl Championship Series contracts expire after the 2013 season.

Will Notre Dame, which has finished among the Associated Press' final top 10 only once in the last 18 seasons, still have automatic access to the marquee bowls? Might the championship road be smoother in a conference?

"They're certainly going to think about (full conference membership) more than they ever have before," Corrigan said from his home near the University of Virginia, "because things have changed so much. … You pick up the paper every day and you have no idea what you might read (about conferences)."

Notre Dame's most natural geographic fit is the Big Ten, but the school has long gazed East. That connection dates to the 1920s, when legions of "subway alumni" flocked to Irish football games at New York's Yankee Stadium.

Pittsburgh would be the only ACC school within 500 miles of Notre Dame. But the geography was similar in 2003, when the conference added Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech — only Maryland's campus was within 500 miles of Chestnut Hill, Mass.

Moreover, common cultural, academic and athletic threads trump Mapquest in this equation.

Like Duke, Miami, Boston College and Wake Forest, Notre Dame is a private school with fewer than 10,000 undergraduates. The Irish also would give the ACC a fourth member ranked among U.S. News and World Report's top 25 — Duke is No. 10, Notre Dame No. 19 and Wake Forest and Virginia tied at No. 25 — allowing the ACC to continue trumpeting that all of its members are among the top 101.

The ACC also values Olympic sports such as lacrosse, tennis and soccer. A national-high five conference schools — Duke, North Carolina, Virginia, Florida State and Maryland — finished among the top 20 in the Directors' Cup all-sports standings in 2010-11. The Irish were 18th and have never been below 31st.

"From a competitive standpoint, it couldn't be better," Corrigan, a Duke graduate and former Virginia athletic director, said of the ACC-Notre Dame match.

Corrigan, who maintains contact with ACC commissioner John Swofford and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick, isn't the only Irish-ACC connection. Two members of the conference's expansion committee, Duke athletic director Kevin White and Wake Forest president Nathan Hatch, used to work at Notre Dame. White served as AD, Hatch in various roles, including associate dean of the school's College of Arts and Letters, and provost.

Bank on White, Hatch and Corrigan massaging negotiations on both sides.

Not surprisingly, Corrigan and others see football scheduling as the biggest hurdle separating the Irish and ACC.

With the addition of Syracuse and Pitt expanding the ACC from 12 to 14 members, league officials figured on bumping the conference schedule from eight to nine games, leaving teams three outside opponents. Notre Dame has played Navy every season since 1927 and wants to maintain an annual presence in California, which translates to yearly dates with USC and Stanford, one home, the other away.

Such an arrangement would leave the Irish no flexibility to play traditional Big Ten rivals such as Michigan. Those two programs are contracted to play annually through 2031.

Would the ACC consider an eight-game conference schedule? Would Notre Dame concede to playing in California once every other year? What of the Irish's TV deal with NBC that runs through 2015?

Issues, yes. Insurmountable, no.

If such questions can be resolved, the ACC should send the welcome wagon to South Bend and find a 16th to accompany Notre Dame — Connecticut would be the morning-line favorite. If not, the conference should be quite content with 14.

A source with ACC and Notre Dame ties who requested anonymity believes an agreement can be reached, and soon.

"To me," he said, "it's a no-brainer."

David Teel can be reached at 757-247-4636 or by email at dteel@dailypress.com. For more from Teel, read his blog at dailypress.com/sports/teeltime and follow him at twitter.com/DavidTeelatDP